In a U.N. study, Finland was named "the most technologically advanced country in the world".

The study measures a country's ability to create and use technologies in the network economy.

Following Finland were the U.S., Sweden, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, U.K., and Canada.

In the use of the internet per capita, Finland was second to the U.S.

Following Finland were Iceland, Canada, and Norway.

Finnish Joke:

Matti, Heikki, and Toivo were sitting in the sauna when they hear a beeping sound. Matti presses his forearm and the beeping stops.

Matti: That's my pager. I have a microchip under the skin of my arm.

A few minutes later a phone rings. Heikki puts his palm to his ear and talks for awhile.

Heikki: That's my cell phone. I have a microchip in my hand.

Toivo feeling rather low tech, steps out of the sauna. A few minutes later he returns with piece of toilet paper extending from his rear end.

The other two looked at him strangely, and he calmly said: "I'm getting a fax.":D :D

10-15-2001

rick barclay

Hey! Don't you know it's in bad taste to laugh at your own
jokes? (But it was funny)

rick barclay

10-16-2001

biterman

Are you finnish?

Interesting...

I'm in finland as an exchange student for the school year 2001-2002. It's pretty interesting, specially the language which is a real challenge. "Tosi vaikea", i'm not even sure if that's right, but i meant to say "Really hard/difficult" or "Real hard/difficult".

I can say that, even though i'm in the middle of nowhere, in a extremely small town, i still haven't met anyone who doesn't have a mobile phone (and i've been here 2 months).

adios,
biterman.

10-16-2001

oskilian

Finland is nice, I was there and I liked the place, I┤d actually never seen sunlight after 6 PM, I went there on summer, so it was very nice.

By the way, I had seen that joke on TV, but it involved an American, a Japanese and a French guy.

Oskilian

10-16-2001

Carbon

Ooh yes, Finland r0xx0rz your b0xx0rz. And yes, I'm Finnish :D

10-16-2001

IcyDeath

God bless Finland!

>>"Tosi vaikea", i'm not even sure if that's right, but i meant to say "Really hard/difficult" or "Real hard/difficult".

You wrote it completely right.

Well... It can't be so "difficult" language. Just keep on learning.
;)"Tsemppiń opiskeluun!";)

10-16-2001

oskilian

I would like to learn Finnish, but noone else in Colombia wants to, so you can forget about group lessons, and private lessons are EXTREMELY expensive, about U$50 an hour-and-a-half, so I guess I'm screwed.

But I would really like to learn Finnish, what do you recommend?

Oskilian

10-17-2001

biterman

Buy books...

I'm here in Finland surrounded by people speaking finnish all the time, but i still can't catch much of it.

I recommend that you buy yourself "Finnish: An Essential Grammar" by Fred Karlson, ISBN: 0415207053. And the best finnish course you book you can find yourself, i have one made by the University of Helsinki, but i don't think you'd be able to get it in Colombia.

Try some online bookstores.

hth,
biterman.

10-17-2001

rick barclay

Whatever happened to kooma?

rick barclay

10-18-2001

oskilian

OK, that would cover grammar, but what about speaking?

Oskilian

10-18-2001

IcyDeath

By the latest researches Finland is on the first place by competitive (don't know how to spell this word;)) ability. U.S. is on the second place, and Canada on the third.
(I heared it in the Finnish news)

P.S. sorry for misspelling...

10-18-2001

esilja

wouldn't you be able to buy a Learn to speak Finnish computer software. I have learn to speak spanish so you would think they would have something like that.

10-19-2001

biterman

Well...

Well finnish is spoken just as it's written, meaning that for every letter there is a corresponding phonem. Like spanish. If you speak spanish you can probably pronounce most words in finnish properly, with a little effort on the words that have front vowels (ń, ÷, y) since spanish doesn't have those.

The book i mentioned has pronounciation guides.

adios,
biterman

10-19-2001

Carlos

Hungary greets Finland!
Great to hear such great news, as we are related... unfortunately, hungarians settled here, in Eastern-Central-Europe, where's chaos always :(

10-19-2001

oskilian

I already knew that finnish is pronounced as-is, even more then spanish!, but yes, we have the "y", but in finnish it┤s pronounced as an "i" and in spanish like a "j", and lots of differences